Flipped Classrooms Pedagogy- Improving Students’ Experience

In recent times, the idea of a “flipped classroom” is fast gaining popularity amongst educators and policy makers given its high success rate in engaging students and encouraging their active participation. In theory a flipped classroom is one that is based on passive learning activities as compared to active learning styles that are too often pushed by teachers in an attempt to encourage students to participate. The curricula are designed to improve the students’ experience with the course. This educational model has received considerably positive response in various educational sectors stating that the same is very helpful and effective in learning and teaching. For students, the biggest advantage is that they are able to take ownership for their learning and can be prepared for their exams in a far easier manner.

Traditional classrooms make use of an instructor-centered teaching model where the lectures are delivered to the students during a specific time period and an assigned homework is to be completed by them later. Flipped classrooms however challenge the idea of “delivering” a lecture and make use of intelligent pedagogy in order to involve student teacher collaboration and interaction. The learning activities are not unidirectional and have proven to be highly informative and useful. With a wide application in a spectrum of subjects and educational levels, this concept has already shown lower failure rates and higher tests scores amongst students. It is worth mentioning here that while the role of open- end exploration is important is this scenario and has very positive effects; the same should not be imposed upon students before the education of the curricula. A number of studies have reported that students who were able to explore their area of subjects and then learn via video lectures and textbooks had more positive grades and outcomes as compared to those who merely focused on their textbooks.

This concept however still remains a controversy and for the domain of pedagogy, it has emerged as a massive challenge where teachers are made to make tough decisions related to exercises, involvement and homework. In addition, when speaking of student engagement and performance and his/her confidence building; there are no clearly defined set of rules that may be followed in every situation. Thus arises a bigger ambiguity in collaborative problem solving and imparting of education. A flipped classroom however does have a few limitations that need to be addressed in order to retain its performance. Firstly, the lack of physical presence of students will greatly hinder or limit their active participation in various programs and courses. Secondly, if students do not come prepared for the classes that are based on video sessions, the session will remain as a mere informative class rather than a learning experience. These limitations need to be addressed via cofounded policies and strict rules in order to meet the educational objectives.